Anamnesis
by xFireWorx
Summary: AU. Yuri. Anamnesis: "The ability to hold in the mind." Ui is mysteriously killed and Yui resolves to find the murderer also managing to get caught up in a fantastical journey with her friends.
1. Cold Memories

"... And so from even before the feudal era, it was widely believed that the rampant plague and mental illness that affected society was accredited to demons and monsters. This was the way that the upperclass explained it to the lower class and took advantage of this system to exploit the underclass further..."

The Lux Women's University freshman, Ritsu, idly tapped her mechanical pencil against her lips. Her thoughts were elsewhere and most certainly not focused on her Ancient History 101 class that she was presently seated in. Unlike high school, the girl didn't have to worry about the teacher calling her out in class and the professor just kept lecturing. Ritsu turned her eyes back to the powerpoint for a moment and recalled that tonight was her roommate's turn to make dinner.

"Clearly, due to their wealth the upperclass were less affected by the plague and all of the disease-related deaths going around. They lived in significantly more sanitary conditions than a majority of the underclass and as a result they were exposed to less bacteria. However, that didn't necessarily make them immune as no effective medicine had really been developed yet-"

Ritsu cracked her knuckles and surveyed the room feeling a little impatient. She saw a girl that she went to high school with, Mio Akiyama, dutifully take down notes. Ritsu suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

"-Oh, sorry everyone. It looks like I went over by a couple of minutes. That's it for today. Don't forget to check the syllabus. Our midterm is next week."

"Hey. Ritsu. We have to practice."

"Coooming, your highness." Ritsu mocked the girl. They had been around each other since high school, even more so because they were in the same band together, however, Ritsu never could quite warm up to the dark haired beauty. Part of her always felt some prickly sense of animosity towards her, unlike most girls it wasn't actually envy. Ritsu didn't really dwell on it and thought that Mio just rubbed her the wrong way or something. It was unusual for her to not be so open to friendship with other people, but Ritsu figured that she had plenty of friends and she'd be fine. She didn't need to be Mio's bestie.

* * *

**Cold Melodies**

* * *

The drummer dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone and remembered she had been meaning to text her little brother back about the latest game he had bought. Ritsu lived in a dorm, but her college was situated in her hometown, Lux, so she could stop by and visit her brother pretty frequently.

She made her way to the music studies building and to their band's assigned studio and found Mio and Tsumugi waiting for her. Ritsu greeted them both rather cheerfully. The three had all gone to the same high school and had been in a band together since their sophomore year. Unfortunately, while their guitarist also was planning on attending the same school as they are. She was a year behind them and would be joining them formally in a few short months as Ritsu's freshmen year was already winding down.

"Mugi, you got that tea ready?"

"Mm, just about."

Ritsu flopped down at the table and ignored the dark look from always-so-serious Mio.

"C'mon Mio. Today's lecture was on a completely different level of boring. Gotta take a break to cool off the dome, y'know?"

Mio apparently didn't know as she responded by only rolling her eyes. Mugi, used to the two trading barbs, calmly set the tea down at the table.

The door to the studio opened and Azusa, having commuted from her nearby high school, strode in and without hesitation poured herself a cup of tea. She let out a long sigh and smiled at her band mates.

"How was your guys' days?"

"Mine was pretty good." Mugi pleasantly responded. "We had a very moving film today in my gender studies class."

"Boring. As. FUCK." Ritsu bluntly responded. Mio made a small noise at her immaturity and language.

"Ritsu is being overdramatic. That last lecture was fine."

"Your definition of 'fine' makes me worry about your mental health, Mio..."

"It was only a fifty minute lecture. Surely even _your_ attention span can handle that..."

Azusa leaned back and took a sip of tea. Used to the bickering. Mugi wasn't sure if she should step in and kindly ask her roommate and Ritsu to pipe down at least during 'tea time'.

There was a hesitant knock at the door that silenced everyone. The door to the studio opened slightly and Ritsu could see the part of the face of her quiet roommate, Yui Hirasawa. Ritsu grinned at the despondent girl.

"Yui, it's fine. You can come in."

"Sorry..."

The girl nervously walked into the room feeling kinda awkward that there were a couple of people she didn't recognize. She immediately felt like an intruder despite the open environment of the studio.

"Oh sorry Yui." Ritsu noted realizing something. "Mugi, I know you already know her, but..." She turned to Mio and Azusa. "Mio, Azusa this is my roommate Yui. Actually we just decided that we're gonna be roommates again next year too-because we're cool like that."

"Ah, nice to meet you Yui. I'm Mio a band mate of Ritsu's."

"I'm Azusa. I'm actually not in college yet, but I'll be matriculating into LWU next year. I'm HTT's guitarist."

"Oh, so everyone in here is a member of HTT...?"

"Correctomundo, Yui!" Ritsu cheered. "Anyway, what's up? I didn't know you even knew where the studio was..."

"Oh, right." Yui muttered. "Ritsu! I'm sorry! I can't cook tonight! I have to cram for my theory midterm tomorrow so I'll be in the library pretty late. My phone's dead so I thought I'd come let you know!" The brunette apologized in a somewhat panicked tone.

"Yeah, no sweat Yui... actually how about this...? Why don't you do your thing in the library 'til around six and you can come back here after that and we can all go out and grab something to eat together? I'm sure you'll need a study break by then."

Yui nodded slightly. "Yeah, that sounds good. I'll come back a little after six." She grinned at her roommate. "Wish me luck, Captain!"

Ritsu mock-saluted back to her roommate. "May your journey be fruitful, Private Yui!"

"Peace!" Yui quietly closed the door behind her and presumably made her way to the music library.

The girls resumed quietly having their tea.

* * *

"Um, this has been bothering me for a while now, but how does Yui plan on _cramming_ for a midterm? All in one night before? That's impossible. I didn't realize that college students could be so irresponsible..." Azusa glanced at Ritsu. "Then again given the _bad_ influence she lives with maybe I shouldn't be so surprised." It was like half a joke/half truth. Ritsu grinned.

"Well, actually Yui has always been doing that and she's been just fine." Mio and Azusa's faces both simultaneously blanched. "She's a prodigy when it comes to learning things it seems..." Ritsu laughed. "Honestly, I was pretty shocked too at first. I mean, she's kind of a space cadet..."

"Well, what's her major Ritsu?" Azusa implored. It'd probably be something light and easy that would enable her to have such horrible study habits the high schooler figured.

"Um, I think she's gonna end up in some sort of musical studies major because she's been taking a lot of music theory classes since she's come here..."

Not quite what Azusa had expected.

"Oh, that's right. Yui is the one who wrote the melodies for our songs, right?" Mio joined in on the conversation. Mugi was attempting to prepare another batch of tea.

"Wha-what?" Azusa practically dropped her tea cup. The girl seemed rather different than the melodies that she had supposedly composed for the band. "I expected her to be..."

"-less sullen?" Mio added in thinking along the same lines as Azusa.

Ritsu and Mugi had tensed at this declaration. They both had a pretty solid idea about what would cause a seemingly inherently bubbly person like Yui to be such a Debbie-downer. Their silence didn't go unnoticed.

"Um, Ritsu, Mugi... do you guys know something?" Azusa cautiously asked. Mio looked deep in thought.

The bassist's mind shifted to a past local newspaper headline. She recalled several in depth news reports on the TV as well. It was the talk of the town.

"Ah, well..." Mugi started.

"Isn't she the sister of the girl in the murder cold case that happened a few months back?" Mio shattered the silence, finally remembering Yui's face from the TV screen. Azusa nearly spit out her tea.

"You mean she's the surviving Hirasawa sister?" Azusa asked incredulously directing her stare at Ritsu.

"To put it simply... or bluntly, I guess... yeah. She is. Her full name is Yui Hirasawa. Her sister Ui was the one mysteriously murdered while they were on their way back from a trip."

"That's..."

Mugi made a face and looked away. Grimacing.

"Yeah, for obvious reasons Yui doesn't have much to say on the subject. She keeps a picture of the two of them in the dorm, but I have a feeling they were really close. Their parents died when they were younger and left them enough to live independently, but Ui was the last member of Yui's family..."

Mio gasped and put a hand over her mouth. Her eyes watered visibly. Ritsu looked away not wanting to imagine would it be like if she lost her little brother Satoshi. Azusa remained silent and stared at her tea cup on the table.

Mugi cleared her throat lightly and everyone's attention snapped to her. "Why don't we start practice?"


	2. Remnants of Consciousness I

The girls sat around at the family owned burger joint in a comfortable silence. Max's Burgers had been around for decades and had been a favorite haunt amongst the youngsters since forever. Yui had fond memories of coming here with her family before her parents had died in a small plane crash during one of their global travels when she was just fifteen... and Ui, only fourteen.

Mio gave Ritsu's roommate a cursory glance. The bassist quietly inferred that the girl was thinking about something unpleasant perhaps related to her sister's death. Mio didn't have any siblings of her own, but her heart still went out to the quiet girl imagining what it would be like to lose a close family member.

Yui fidgeted a little bit in her seat. This dinner was less awkward than she had originally feared. Having Ritsu and Mugi, two familiar and friendly faces, around really helped ease any sort of potential awkward silence between the two ravenettes she had not met until today. She was certain that they were all nice girls, as she highly doubted her roommate would have any bitchy friends, but it still didn't make the first few minutes any less uncomfortable for the odd one out-Yui. Her sister had played guitar, not she. She could talk about music with them but only in a compositional theoretical sense, and if you didn't know much about it then it'd only bore the listener to death. Yui understood this herself firsthand, often being the one to doze off mid-lecture.

Ritsu came back from the beverage section with the last of everyone's requested drinks. She slammed Yui's and her own drinks on the table and slid into her side of the booth pushing Yui into Azusa lightly. Yui mumbled an apology to the shorter girl under her breath, being especially careful about it as she had a sense that the girl wasn't too fond of her, and gratefully received her drink from Ritsu.

Azusa blushed still feeling a little embarrassed about all the assumptions she had made about the girl sitting on her left earlier. She had no idea what her background was and she still opened her big mouth and called her "irresponsible." Even though the other girl would never find out she still felt guilty for passing judgment on the college freshman so quickly. Unfortunately for Azusa, Ritsu noticed HTT's lead guitarist's struggles.

"Watchya doin' squirming like that, Azuny-?"

"NO."

Yui looked puzzled. "Azuny...?" She repeated looking lost. Had she been calling the guitarist the wrong name the entire time. She could've sworn that the girl had introduced herself as "Azusa"... maybe that was why she didn't like Yui very much. She'd been calling her the wrong name...?!

Recognizing Yui's confusion, Ritsu stepped back into the fray. "Well, Yui," she started. "The fact is that Azusa's _true_ name is Azunya-ack!" Ritsu reached down under the table and rubbed her shin not missing the warning glance from Mio across the table. Ritsu cursed Mio in her head. The bassist seemed to be even more insufferable than usual today. The drummer was determined to not let this sour her mood though. She wanted her roomie to relax maybe just a little bit.

Ritsu went to take a sip from her drink but then realized the straw wrapper was still partially on the straw. Ritsu grinned to herself.

_Heh. A chance for vengeance._

The drummer kept the idle conversation going about the latest side project from one of her favorite contemporary artists, Dave Groehl, and removed the straw from her drink as subtly as humanly possible. She eyed Mio, mentally locking onto her in her mind. Ritsu lifted up the straw to her lips with all intentions of blowing the remnants of her straw wrapper at the bassist. However, HTT's resident keyboardist caught Ritsu in the act.

"MIO, WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" The blonde girl yelped uncharacteristically and tackled the bassist down into a duck in their booth. The straw wrapper was actually too wet which led all of Ritsu's futile blowing efforts to be for naught as the wrapper couldn't even leave the straw.

Oh, and Mio was in mid-sip when Mugi jumped on her. There's that too.

Mugi quietly gave her apologies to Mio as they had both gotten sprayed by Mio's Sprite. However, the blonde's apology went in one ear and quickly out the other as she affixed a deadly glare in Ritsu's direction. Immediately, giving the responsibility of the blame to Ritsu. Azusa sighed, glad that Yui seemed to have lost interest about her nickname. Yui gulped in slight fear wondering if she was gonna have to find a new (living) roommate. And Ritsu...

Ritsu just gave Mio the biggest shit-eating grin.

"Order number sixy-four is up. Order number sixty-four!"

Mugi and Mio hurriedly got up and went to wash up in the bathroom. Before leaving the table Mio hissed at Ritsu to pick up their table's order. Ritsu kept on grinning and went over to the other side of the restaurant to grab the burgers. It was just Azusa and Yui now.

Yui and Azusa.

Azusa and Yui.

The high schooler felt eyes on her so she turned to look at the only other person left at the table. It had gotten pretty quiet after the other three girls had left, but Azusa couldn't help but recall her mother's advice regarding pets and small children: you should be the most worried and concerned when they get quiet. That generally means they're about to cause the most trouble.

"Umm...?"

"Azunyaa...?"

"..." Azusa pretended she didn't hear it trying her best to forcefully ignore the entire weirdness of the situation. As long as she didn't figure it out she was sure the quiet girl would drop it eventually. Azusa wasn't aware of the other girl's intendancy to take things to the extreme.

"Azunya...b?" Azusa felt her eyebrow twitch. Okay, _fine_. She just needed a distraction. A different subject...

"Hasn't the weather been nice lately...?" Yui's unblinking stare didn't leave her face for a moment.

"Azunya...c?"

"..." Azusa was beginning to get slightly uncomfortable.

"Azunya...d?"

... Dear _lord_. Was this girl going to go through the entire alphabet?

* * *

**Remnants of Consciousness I**

* * *

In the silence of the dingy bathroom Mugi and Mio did their best to remove the unwanted moisture from their clothes. It was just Sprite though, so it was a little beyond the blonde as to why Mio was so insistent on going to wash out the "stains."

"Mio?"

"Yes?" The bassist answered tersely. Clearly, Ritsu had managed to jump right onto her last good nerve. Mugi knew that her best friend had no ill will towards her and felt safe to continue her line of questioning.

"Was there really a need to rush to the bathroom right away?"

"Well..."

"What's the matter Mio? Is something wrong?"

"I just wanted a break from that idiot. I can only stand her in small doses."

"Ah, you're referring to Ritsu. I see."

"Th-there's nothing to see, Mugi!" Mio knew that the dangerous glint in her roommate's eyes wasn't a good omen.

"Hmm... I wonder..."

"I-it's just," Mio dryed off her hands hurriedly. "You know, she's always so cold to me even though I've never, like, wronged her or anything. She's just so irritating sometimes..."

"In her defense, you did kick her pretty hard under the table..."

"That's not what I really meant. I mean, she's so much nicer to you Mugi..."

"It's okay, Mio. I'm only into older women..."

"What...?" The bassist couldn't conceal the blank and shocked look on her face as she turned to her roommate.

"What?" Mugi mirrored back equally as confused as Mio.

Mio loved her best friend to death, but sometimes she had no idea where that girl's mind went. Mio found that more often than not that their thought processes were running on two completely different tracks.

* * *

"Hmmm..." Yui, still alone with the senior in high school, stared out the window deep in thought. Azusa literally had no idea when the last time this enigmatic girl had blinked. It's had to have been at least like five minutes by now, right? That just _couldn't_be healthy, the guitarist mused not realizing that she was now staring back at Yui. "Azunya...m?"

Azusa flinched a little bit at the noise, reminding her that she was staring intently at this girl she had just met today. After a few seconds, she chanced a quick look at Yui through her peripheral vision. As time went on Yui's guesses had become further and further apart. At this rate the most recent guess was probably the girl's last one. She was _so_ close, assuming that she would've continued down her pattern of alphabetical order, but Azusa prevailed. She let out a sigh in relief.

With a somewhat-creepy glint in her eye, Yui quickly turned to the guitarist pointing at her violently. "Azunyan!"

"Dammit."

* * *

Ritsu had accidentally grabbed the wrong order so it had taken her a while to settle things correctly. Eventually, she did return though with everyone's burgers and fries and Mugi and Mio came shortly after she did as well. The five girls enjoyed their brief dinner together and the other members of HTT warmed up to their unofficial (previously anonymous) melody writer as well. Yui enjoyed spending time with everyone as well, but was a little confused as to why Azunyan hadn't introduced herself using her real name.

She figured she'd ask Ritsu later. It was a bit after seven and Yui decided to head directly back to the library as studying in the room with Ritsu was hard because the drummer's antics always distracted her. Not that she minded at all, but she did kinda have a huge midterm to cram for and time was most certainly valuable tonight.

It was too bad though. She got inspiration to write a new melody. It was stuck in her head. The young composer figured it would have to wait until later. Maybe tomorrow if she made it through the midterm. The brunette whined a bit to herself as she marched up the stairs to the quieter second floor of the library. She was so full and now sleepy.

She found herself a nice carrel in a scenic spot by a large window. It was starting to get dark out, but Yui decided to hunker down and get to studying. Now, if she remembered correctly at least a third of this test was going to be on aural skills...

* * *

Mugi bid everyone else a pleasant farewell and started walking towards her house. She walked down the cobblestone street and passed one of the two unused yet delicately preserved shrines in Lux. This one in particular had engravings of the sun in it's columns and the coloring suggested that it had been vibrant shades of orange, yellow and red along with a dash of white back in the day. Lux was a historical town with a very interesting history.

Some of the town's history was very well documented. Mugi's father, the current mayor, had seen fit to reconnect Lux with a sense of its past and made specific efforts to enlarge the town's library and allow free access to ancient records for all to learn from.

However, some parts of the town, like the shrines for example, had little to no information to be found in these older texts leading many historians to believe that for some reasons the information concerning those places was transmitted only orally. Unfortunately, nobody in the town remained that knew if there were any stories behind these shrines. Sadly, the history of these historical sites seem to be lost forever.

It was very interesting how Lux had a lot of history in some ways, but not a lot in others. The juxtaposition of the information asymmetry was fascinating to many scholars. Mugi wondered whether the town used to be a lot different in the past. Was the town less safe back then and maybe some essential pieces of text got destroyed in conflicts?

Well, given a particular event that had happened in the last year was Lux really all that safe?

•••

Mugi had been walking home from the supermarket. She had practiced with her band earlier that day, but instead of going home she decided to go to the food store instead. It was a temperate summer afternoon and the blonde felt no need to take the car for the two mile round trip if she took the longer scenic route. She didn't have much to buy so carrying the groceries wasn't an issue either. All she needed was enough for a dinner for her mother, father and herself.

On the way back though she got distracted talking to LWU's president's daughter, Nodoka, they were classmates in high school and both girls would be attending LWU together. In the midst of their conversation, Mugi happened to get a glance at her wristwatch and realized that it was almost six already. She bid her goodbyes to Nodoka and started trotting lightly back towards her house. She decided that in the interest of time that she should take a shortcut through a smaller, significantly less populated side street to hasten her return home.

Huffing lightly the blonde jogged at a pretty good clip down the alley and turned the corner sharply about to enter the side street.

The milk she had bought almost landed on her foot as the sight before her stunned her to the point where the blonde could swear she was having an outer body experiment, or that she was stuck in a dream, no, a nightmare.

There were two prone bodies on the cobblestone road. Fresh mixed with somewhat dried blood was scattered around both of them. Mugi bit back her scream and approached, groceries forgotten, trembling and fumbling her brain short-circuiting as she tried to remember where her cell phone was. She quickly called for emergency services and managed to not have a complete nervous breakdown, but she knew she'd never forget the sight before her.

One of the girls was on her stomach, spread-eagle. The other girl had significantly more blood surrounding her most likely caused by the fact she was mortally wounded-clearly having been stabbed. Mugi wasn't even sure if that girl was alive anymore. The blonde's eyes watered. They looked about her age and just judging by the similarities in hair color alone... they were probably siblings too.

What could those girls, only in their late teens, could have possibly have done to warrant getting attacked so brutally? Especially, in this small quiet town of Lux. The keyboardist sank to her knees breathing heavily.

She couldn't even move to acknowledge the approaching screech of the ambulance as the emergency workers scurried by her, thanking her for alerting them, carrying the bodies into the car. She only really came back into her own when she heard the last of the ambulance's doors shut and only the police and detectives remained. The blonde caught a glance of the detectives talking amongst themselves and only saw a lot of sighing, shaking of heads, and wearied glances.

Their body language clearly displayed that they had no idea what was going on and most likely no leads on the situation either. Mugi picked herself up and called her family and filled them in on what happened as to not alarm them about her unusually long absence. With the scene of the bodies still staining her mind, she found herself asking the officers whether the girls were taken to a hospital locally or out of town. They gave exchanged melancholic looks with each other and informed her that they were taken to the nearest hospital-Lux Municipal Hospital.

The girl's purpose for asking the question was very clear and one of the officers offered to give her a ride to the hospital. The girl obliged and numbly got into the police car. The entire ten minute drive was silent. The keyboardist spoke only to thank the police officer and pivoted and stiffly walked towards the hospital's emergency room entrance. Conscious of the no-cell phone policy she quickly called her dad and told her what was going on and before he could ask too many questions she uncharacteristically told him to turn on the news and hung up in a rush. She had no intention of being rude to her father, but her nerves were too frazzled to endure a worried parent's questioning. She was fine.

She knew who wasn't though.

* * *

As she waited them to finish their operations, Mugi wondered if she should text any of her friends about what she had seen. She decided against it especially after imagining Mio's reaction to the gory news. They'd hear about it eventually anyway. Mugi's involvement was of little consequence to whatever had taken place. She could always share at a later point if she felt up to it.

There was a gurney rushed out and a lot of staff shuffling about here and there. Mugi's eyes followed said gurney to one of the individual rooms on the emergency wing. Before she knew it she found herself following it closely behind skirting confused hospital personnel effortlessly.

She was eventually stopped by a nurse outside the injured girl's door.

"Are you her family?"

"No, I'm the one who found them in their state."

"Ah, I see. Well, you shouldn't-"

"Please just let me stay here until she wakes up. I don't think she should wake up alone given whatever happened."

The nurse raised an eyebrow at the blonde's sudden outburst. "Yes, well, the detectives are certainly hoping that Ms. Hirasawa will have some leads for the apparent murder of her sister."

"The-they were sisters...?" Mugi's initial hypothesis had been correct, much to her horror.

The nurse sighed solemnly. "Yes, records show that they were a little over a year apart in age. Those two hadn't been in town for a while. They had decided to go on a trip to honor their parents' love of travel after their death a few years back..."

"So that means this Yui is...?"

"All alone." The nurse's empathetic grief was present in her eyes. "Yes, she's survived by no family it seems."

"If that's the case, please let me stay!"

"Just... contact the staff if or when she wakes up, okay?"

"Of course."

* * *

It was just about midnight and the girl hadn't stirred from her position on the bed. According to the heart monitors she was stable, with some nasty burns and lacerations. It was strange seeing that her sister only had one stab wound. Yui Hirasawa, slept on to the beat of the buzz of the hospital.

Mugi was glad it was summer break as she didn't have any early plans tomorrow. However, she was worried that Yui would wake up after she left. Visiting hours were most certainly going to be over soon and she couldn't imagine how terrifying it would be to wake up in this sort of situation. Tsumugi couldn't help, but worry about the girl her own age, yet had seen a considerably more vicious side of life than she-or just about anyone else-had.

It was getting really stuffy in the room so Mugi decided to crack a window a slight bit and let a cooler evening breeze float into the room.

"...e..clipse..."

The shades fluttered slightly and the keyboardist heard a slight groaning sound and the sound of cotton on cotton as the occupant of the bed came to. Mugi whirled around to face her and was immediately at her side leaving a respectful amount of space between herself and the recently hurt girl.

Yui made a noise of pain and Mugi subtly hit the call button, remembering the nurse's instructions to contact the staff in the case that Yui woke. Mugi lifted her hands up to steady the girl and went to do so, until she recalled it'd be best not to disturb her. She quietly watched the girl's eyes attempt to focus and her struggles to push herself up, taking her IV wires with her as she sat up in bed.

"Ui..." The girl murmured under her breath not noticing the mayor's daughter's presence at all. Yui's eyes watered.

Mugi bit her lip tentatively. Did Yui already know Ui's fate?

Both girls were broken out of their own respective reveries when the hospital staff intervened quickly and checked the Yui's vitals. Mugi wasn't quite ushered of the room yet, most likely because she was completely overlooked by the frantic hospital nurses. Apparently Yui had stabilized and her wounds had stopped bleeding. The doctors left the room, but as quickly as they came a lone detective came in.

Mugi frowned at this. The girl had just woken up. The pianist was aware that information that Yui could have could be time sensitive, but pushing Yui too hard could put an immense physical and mental strain on the poor girl. The detective must have deemed her to be well enough to ask some preliminary questions though.

"Do you remember you name?"

Yui nodded.

He went along these lines asking her basic questions to test her memory such as her age, her birthday and so forth. Eventually though, much to the blonde's displeasure, he asked another question-a different type of question.

"Do you know who attacked you and your sister?"

Yui, who was more or less silent and despondent during the whole exchange, suddenly started and jolted upright. Her eyes dilated as everything came rushing back to her at once. She shivered for a moment then froze, with a deadly stillness. There were no tears though. Perhaps, something worse...

"UI!"

A ragged scream echoed throughout Lux Municipal Hospital. The detective looked a mixture of apologetic and panicked as nurses on call flooded the room and escorted him out. Feeling that it was inappropriate to stay any longer at this point Mugi rushed out as well. She briskly walked down the hallways and the moment she exited the hospital she called her parents. Not feeling the tears rushing down her face.

* * *

Yui cradled her sister's head in her arms as she watched to her horror the red spread onto Ui's clothes more and more. Yui was choking on air and felt a mix of emotions coalesce within herself as she stared down at her dying sister's face.

Yui couldn't tell if it was just her or whether the ground beneath her kneeling legs was actually shaking. For all she could know the world could be tearing itself apart right now.

"Sis... it's okay..."

There was so much blood.

"How... is this okay?"

_Pain_. Pain had engraved herself squarely into her younger sister's body. Pain and blood that there was so much, too much, that it was gonna take her sister away now-to another place separating her from her last living family member.

Yui wanted to scream. Yui wanted to shout. Yui wanted to cry,

yet she could only whisper.

"Just promise me..." A shaky intake of breath. "That you'll love... with your whole heart... and fearlessly... because.. tha... that's who... you are..."

"Ui! NO!"

"Be true... to yourself, ... Yui."

Ui Hirasawa made her last smile ... and drew her last breath.

•••

_Please let me know what you think, thus far. Pairings will become obvious (if not already) as the story continues._


	3. Remnants of Consciousness II

Second semester finals were creeping up, like the infamous "bed intruder," on all of the freshmen at LWU. Yui volunteered to make dinner as neither she nor her boisterous roommate felt like going to the dining hall for subpar nourishment. The brunette departed the campus gates and meandered her way into town trying not to be tempted by the numerous ice cream and frozen yogurt places that had popped up in the last year lining the street.

Yui had finally made it to the supermarket with concealed relief (after having to turn down many inviting ice cream shops with friendly staff outside offering free samples). The girl wasn't the best with directions and constantly got lost. With Ui not there to help her navigate, she'd often take a wrong turn on the way to this particular supermarket. Often resulting in having to call her roommate to help her find her way back to the dorms. Yui grinned to herself victoriously albeit somewhat creepily. Today, Ritsu wouldn't make fun of her for getting lost. _Yes!_

Yui couldn't stop herself from doing a little fist pump for her victory in public.

"Um, hey Yui..."

Yui started from her disconcerting expression and turned to see her childhood friend, Nodoka. "Ah, hey Nodoka~!" Yui mumbled sheepishly.

As Yui grew up she got to know the bespectacled girl very well. Nodoka's mother was the president of LWU and her dad was on the administrative committee for the high school Yui would've gone to. Education was their passion and so it was little surprise that the Hirasawas, both accomplished archeologists and intellectuals within their own right, and the Manabes hit it off well. Due to their parents' friendship and the fact that they lived across the street from each other: Yui and Ui got to know Nodoka rather well. The three girls were close.

"Picking up groceries too?" Nodoka asked Yui with an edge of teasing in her voice. She was well aware of the girl's ability to get hopelessly lost even in her own hometown. She had that problem ever since she was little. One time Yui had gotten lost on the way back from Nodoka's house. Yui had forgotten her house was across the street. Nodoka smiled at the sheepish girl across from her feeling a bit of maternal-like pride that the girl had managed to not get lost on the way to the store.

Yui would be successful on making her way back to the dorms too... she hoped.

* * *

**Remnants of Consciousness II**

* * *

"Well, the Captain needs me back ASAP, so I gotta go Nodoka. See ya!" Yui half-jogged into the supermarket with a determined look painted on her face and Nodoka smiled and shook her head to herself. She was elated to see how Yui was in significantly better spirits over the course of the past year she had been home. She was at first confused at her dad's pulling-of-strings he did to get her neighbor into LWU.

However, Nodoka could now see today that going to college had really helped the girl find at least a bit of solace. She wasn't quite the same girl she knew-coming from Nodoka that meant a lot given that the girl had spent most of her time with the Hirasawa kids with the exception of the three years the two sisters had gone on a trip to see the world.

_The same trip that had a tragic end_, the girl recalled. Nodoka suddenly felt her reminiscing was turning her mood sour, but she couldn't stop those past moments from reconnecting in her head.

•••

"Shh... It'll be okay, Ui. We'll be just fine."

Two figures, dressed in dark clothes, embraced each other. Clinging.

Nodoka, along with the other attendees at the wake, only could bring herself to look on. It was such a strange sight to see Yui act as the nurturing more mature one of the two sisters. Normally, Nodoka was sure she would have been unsettled by it, but in a case like this she was so thankful for Yui's ability to adapt and step up.

Nodoka took off her glasses and wiped the moisture off the lenses.

They were orphaned now. By an accident. By a circumstance. By bad weather hurling a metal bird back onto the tarmac exploding into flames.

The Hirasawa parents had been flying to their next dig site when sudden inclement weather struck taking out the small plane's engine. It had been an innocent accident with not so innocent consequences.

Ui continued to vocalize the sounds of her heart hurting.

The entire room echoed with these sounds, these wails.

* * *

"Are you really sure about this, Yui?"

"Mmm, yeah. It's now or never."

"Surely you guys could travel on a break before you go to college or at least wait until you're done with school...?"

"No can do, No-do-ka~."

While the idea may seem absurd to most, given their family situation, the two sisters leaving home to travel the world kinda made sense to the neighbor. The Hirasawas had _always_ offered to take the girls with them on a trip or two whenever their school schedules allowed for it, but in the end their daughters would refuse. Apparently not too long after the wake Ui and Yui both felt that the best way they could possibly honor their parents' memories would to go on a grandiose trip using some of the money their late parents set aside for them in their wills.

Perhaps it just was a latent genetic predisposition for traveling, the girl mused.

She couldn't help but be in awe of how quickly Yui had matured over the past few weeks. The older sister had certainly become more confident and slightly dogmatic in certain beliefs-not that was a bad thing. The Yui of the past was somewhat of a pushover and was easily persuaded and if with the wrong people-easily manipulated.

The childhood friend certainly had her work cut out for her in the past. Personally, she was kinda curious about how this trip would affect Yui's maturity as well. Would she become more responsible? Articulate? Less likely to accept cake from strangers?

Well, maybe not the last one.

"Nodoka," Yui started. She had a light suitcase and a backpack. Clearly, she was planning on voyaging lightly. Ui had a similar amount packed. Most likely Ui had packed her sister's suitcase as well. "Please take care of the place." Yui added an unnecessary wink and pose to punctuate this statement.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll make sure it stays locked and I'll pick up your mail..." The two now-orphaned teenagers weren't sure about how long they were going to be traveling for. They promised to send postcards if they could and attempt to stay in touch regularly if possible. The two girls wanted to first start by visiting all of the major dig sites that their parents had been to and work their way back to Lux.

In fact, there was a site very close to Lux that their parents had briefly visited years ago. Due to its special architecture that characteristic of an ancient time period, it had been deemed a historical structure and so the town was able to keep it protected from being destroyed in the future. Since it was so close to home the parents had viewed that site as more of a hobby and kept trying to uncover more secrets about it as they worked on other sites. They didn't get too far as like a lot of the history in Lux it appeared that most of it was contained in oral tradition and had presumably vanished and faded into the abyss of history. It was far from a priority, so the parents weren't too concerned.

"Well, it's time to _groove_ on over to the airport." Nodoka sighed.

"Um... right." Nodoka turned to the more academically inclined of the two sisters. "Ui, you're gonna make sure Yui keeps up with her studies right?" The only delay that the two Hirasawa girls had in going on their trip was setting up with the local school system that they were going to essentially be "homeschooled" for an indeterminate amount of time. Normally, one teenager homeschooling another while simultaneously being responsible for her own education would be way out of the question, however, Ui and Yui made their case rather convincingly and the Lux school system gave them their approval. Although the girls would have to take some sort of test upon their return.

"Yui is perfectly capable as long as she puts her mind to it," the younger sister beamed with an oddly fitting maternal pride. "Also, don't worry we'll be sure to pick up some wonderful souvenirs for you. Thanks for taking care of us as always, Nodoka." Ui finished sweetly.

"Please don't worry about it. You make it sound like I'm never going to see you again."

"Guys!" Both girls turned to Yui who was bouncing up and down in place on the curb. "Guys! The car is here!" Sure enough there was a black sedan pulled up along side of Yui clearly waiting to be loaded up and taken to the airport. The driver was waiting patiently inside the tinted vehicle.

The two other girls joined Yui at the curb and evidently Yui had something she wanted to say. Nodoka had grown quite proud of how Yui had stepped up to the challenges that life had given her, especially doing this all while coping with the grief of losing their parents. The girl had really grown up in the short amount of time that had passed and had truly matured.

"Nodoka," she started with a lot enthusiasm. "Thanks for sticking with us and being such a groovy friend-"

"Stop using the words 'groove' and 'groovy' Yui... just don't-"

"Anyway," Yui interrupted. "All I have to say to you is this: _b__onjour_, Nodoka!"_  
_

"..."

"..."

"U-um, you meant _au revoir_, right?" Ui helpfully corrected with a slight sigh.

"Oh, yeah, that!"

Yui was gonna be okay, right...?

It wasn't much later that the girls would bid their last farewell to their precious childhood friend. Nodoka remained at the side of the road waving until the car was out of sight. She cold feel herself beginning to miss the silly sisters already.

Hopefully Ui would at least to remember to contact her when they arrived at the airport safe and sound. Nodoka yawned and trudged back to her house under the slowly brightening sky, resolving to get a few more hours of sleep before she really started her day. It was a little known fact but Nodoka really loved her sleep, just like her friend Yui.

Nodoka stretched her arms above her head as she relocked the door behind her in her house and gave out a great big yawn.

She was really gonna miss those sisters.

•••

Nodoka placed the last of the fruit she had gone out to buy gingerly into the thin plastic bag. She swiftly moved through the check-out opting to do self-check out and made her way back to her house. She had opted to not live in a dorm for her freshman year as she wanted to make sure she was close enough to keep an eye on the Hirasawa residence, but due to Yui's return Nodoka had applied to get a single room in a dorm for her sophomore year.

She loved her parents, but she could definitely benefit from having a bit more of independence and not the feeling of constantly being under their dominion. They were a little ... intense, especially about her grades-for rather obvious reasons. Ah, the downsides of having parents in education...

Nodoka opened the big oak doors on the front of her house and stepped inside. She rather liked taking walks, but she definitely wouldn't mind a shorter walk to class. Sleeping in was still considered to be a big bonus in Nodoka's mind.

* * *

Ritsu tapped her pencil rhythmically against her desk slightly nodding her head to the beat. She was supposed to be studying for her Ancient History midterm next week, but her mind had trailed off into more... amusing things.

She was weighing things on her mind. After the midterm she wanted to go out and do something fun and wacky with her friends, but at the same time she also wanted to get back at Mio for giving her the lovely set of bruises she was currently sporting on her shins. She started tapping her pencil against her face instead.

Completely giving up on studying Ritsu whipped out her phone and dialed Mugi.

"... Hello... Ritsu?"

"Chyea. What's shaking Moog?"

"Well, currently nothing at the moment, but I actually am in the middle of learning this new dance called 'twer-"

"Anyhoo, I need to ask a favor of ya."

"Sure. How can I help?"

"I need to know Mio's weak points." There was suddenly a lot of shuffling on the other end of the line.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Um, you still there Moog?"

The drummer could hear heavy breathing and then the sound of Mugi (she presumed) clearing her throat. "I-I believe that would either be her neck or maybe the tip of her ears-n-not that I've tried myself as she's not my typ-"

"Wait, what? How am I supposed to get back at her if-"

"OH! You meant the _other _kind of weak points..."

"What...? I don't even-"

"Ahem." Mugi cleared her throat yet again. "Mio is actually quite a scaredy cat despite outward appearances. I found this out during Halloween this year. She did a pretty good job hiding it in-"

"PERFECT! THIS IS-"

"WILL YOU LET ME FINISH MY DAMN SENTENCE?!"

"Y-yes, ma'am."

Much to Ritsu's surprise, the drummer learned today that Mio wasn't the only Dangerous Queen® around. Perhaps, Mugi had learned this behavior from her roommate...

* * *

HTT's guitarist sighed as she lounged on the couch and flipped through channels. She had already finished her assignments for the day like the diligent student she was and now found herself searching for something to watch. She wasn't a big TV person and much preferred just watching some movies on her laptop when she felt inclined to.

Another bland commercial related to a local car dealership came on for the 50th time since she turned on the TV and she sighed again. The reason for her endless sighing was not due to any school related stress for once, although she was uncomfortably preoccupied with the undoubtedly negative impression she left with her newest acquaintance, Yui.

She was sighing for a very common reason for kids her age.

Family were coming to visit today, and really by "family" it would probably only be her grandma. Not that she didn't love her grandma, but the woman was prone to long wistful rants about the history of their family and how she had to be sure that she would find a "suitable" husband and "produce many heirs to carry on the Nakano line."

Azusa shivered at the last part. When her grandma first mentioned this notion to her she was only ten and hadn't received "the talk" yet from her parents which led to a lot of confusion about why finding someone "suitable" and producing children were related... and what exactly did grandma mean by "suitable" anyway...?

Actually, she didn't want to know-scratch that-she _really_ didn't want to know. The last thing she needed was an intimate view of her grandmother's taste in men or whatever.

"Azusa!" Her mother's voice rang out. "Grandma's here. Come say hi."

Azusa picked herself up off the sofa with slight reluctance and trotted over to the front door. Her dad had run out to buy groceries to make dinner and Azusa was an only child, so it was just the three women in the Nakano residence. Soon enough all of the women were seated around the dining room table idly drinking tea. Azusa feverishly wished in her mind that things wouldn't get too weird too quickly.

She could only hope.

"So, Azusa what have you been up to lately?" Her grandma broke into her ruminations.

"Um, well, just the same old. I'm finishing up my senior year and I'm going to LWU next year. I applied to get a single in the dorms and-"

"Oh, yes. That would make it easier to find a suitable husband now wouldn't it? Actually..." The guitarist ignored the winking from her grandma. Azusa's mom suddenly remembered she had an errand she needed to run leaving Azusa alone with paternal grandmother. Azusa blanched, _no Mom don't leave me here alone!_

Azusa pressed on despite the circumstances.

"-I'm continuing to play with my friends in the band... even though we practice at LWU now, so that's slightly less convenient." Azusa was completely babbling and panicking now. All she knew was that her best shot at not being furthered scarred by her grandmother's statements was that if she filled up the silence with her own talking. "Um, oh yeah, I made a new friend ... well, I guess we're not really friends, yet more like we're friendly..."

The guitarist noticed her mistake a little too late when she looked up from her teacup to see a certain glint in the older woman's eyes probably triggered by her vague use of the word "friendly."

_Shit._ Abort mission!

Great she was beginning to sound like Ritsu and all of her "I'm the president of this club" and "I'm the captain of cake" antics. She wondered in the back of her head if Yui also took part in this silliness as well. Seeing that the girl chose to live with Ritsu for the second year in a row: the answer was most likely yes.

But in all seriousness she needed to change the subject from her ... to deflect somehow onto another safer topic. She looked around the room and examined her grandmother briefly. A shimmer of a ridiculously oversized earring caught Azusa's eye. She had found her opening! Her grandma just loved talking about her showy jewelry.

"Oh, uh, by the way, Grandma, I like your earrings."

"Why thank you, dear." Azusa let out a sigh of relief. "They're nothing compared to those family heirlooms lost long ago."

"Um, what?" The guitarist berated herself for inciting her grandmother into launching into one of her long-winded stories with no real conclusion.

"Well, according to what my Grandma's grandma told me," _Oh dear Lord_. Azusa suppressed another sigh. "We once had a family heirloom that was in its own league when it came to beauty. I was told they too were earrings."

_"_Did earrings even exist back then?_" _Azusa grumbled to herself. Admittedly, Azusa was a bit cranky herself, but she wasn't sure why. Unfortunately, her grandmother was most certainly testing her patience.

"Speak up, dear, my old ears didn't catch that."

"Oh, um, it was nothing..."

"Well, anyway since we've been living area this area for decades, back in my youth i decided to-"

In order to preserve precious brain cells Azusa tuned her grandma out without hesitation. She nodded and made nosies of interest at appropriate times as the older woman carried on in telling her somewhat apocryphal tale.

"-and no one had even heard of it before? Can you believe it?"

"That's probably due to the fact that you made it up yourself..."

"Hm? What was that?"

"N-nothing." Azusa realized she was really cutting it close with the sass and needed to rein herself in a little more.

There was the sound of the front door opening and swiftly closing.

"Hey Azusa, hey Mom." Mr. Nakano continued walking through the house. He looked around in confusion when he only saw two women in the dining room. "Where did my lovely wife go?"

"Dad, she said she had to go out and run some last minute errands."

"Oh, huh, that's weird... I thought I had everything covered." Azusa sighed. _Mom, you traitor_. "Oh, maybe she went out to buy some more strings for her Archtop because we only have lighter gauged strings left..." Mr. Nakano sat down at the dining room table as well pouring himself a cup of green tea.

The Nakano parents were both jazz musicians and actually both played guitar. They played in a jazz bands all throughout high school and college, but then went into the corporate world for a little while. They both realized that it wasn't the occupation from them so they moved from the city and back to Mr. Nakano's quiet hometown, Lux, where they could make a living off of their music. It was no wonder where Azusa got her affinity for the guitar from.

"So, how have you guys been holding up in my absence?" He asked merrily.

"Oh um we were just talking, Dad."

"I see. I should start making dinner... Azusa would you mind lending me a hand in the kitchen?"

"Sure!" Escape route located!

The silence was quickly fragmented by the ringtone of a distant cell phone going off. The youngest member of the house quickly recognized it as being hers as Ritsu's personal ringtone, The Who's "My Generation" kept sounding off. Azusa apologized and darted over to her room to take the call, promising her father she'd be right out as soon as she was off the phone.

Azusa scooped the phone off of her bed and deftly answered it.

"Hey Ritsu, what's up?"

"Yoo Azusa... or should I say _Azunyan_?" This again? She had just happened to try on those ridiculous cat ears _once_, and she may have meowed once or twice by Mugi's request. It was certainly not good enough to dub her with a nickname just due to one momentary lapse in judgment during a past event!

"... what is it, Ritsu?"

"Well, stuff's going down, you feel me?"

"I don't want to 'feel you'..."

"It's just a figure of speech, you impudent high schooler!"

"I know. I was making a joke..."

"Oh..."

"..."

"Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we're gonna do some super fun _bonding_ this weekend as a band, kinda."

"Why do I not like the sound of this?"

"It'll be fun I promise!"

"Your promises frighten me, Ritsu."

"It'll be fine. It's actually just not going to be HTT-I'm gonna bring Yui along too. You like her, right?"

"U-um, yeah, sure." Azusa wasn't sure why she suddenly felt so self-conscious and embarrassed... actually yes she was. She was having vivid memories of Yui discovering that cringe-worthy nickname of hers.

"See? It'll be fantastic!"

"Whatever you say..."

"Okay, awesome. This weekend. Seven PM. Meet at the main square. We're going on a field trip to the cemetery~."

"Wait, WHAT?!"

"Don'ttellMioorI'llbringthecatearsbye!"

"..."

Azusa dazedly stared at her phone. She wasn't sure who was crazier, her grandma or Ritsu. Her phone buzzed again and she got a strange selfie of Ritsu featuring her apparently equally as strange roommate, Yui, making strange hand signs and faces. There was absolutely no text to go along with the picture and therefore not even a semblance of explanation to go along with it. It would've been almost a cute silly picture if maybe Ritsu hadn't purposely taken it so that her forehead took up approximately 50% of the picture.

_Ritsu is definitely the weirder one_, she decided.


End file.
